…I am seeing benefits of my renewed dedication to my health.

I have a significant increase in physical and mental energy.

My legs are firming up and regaining their shape, from the running and the walking I am doing.

I have been successful at integrating running workouts into my schedule. Just completed week 3 of a Couch – to – 5 K plan.

My weight training workouts  – well, I am not so successful there.  This is because it is not as easy and mindless as jumping onto the treadmill, tapping on my iPod to get the workout playing, and taking off from there.  I have to concentrate on proper form, and at this stage for me, it means referring to the print-outs of the exercises I carry in my gym bag. Plus it takes longer than my treadmill workouts. According to the Body Sculpting Bible, I am supposed to be resting for 90 seconds in between sets. So, I perform a set then…la di da di da ho hum la di da…I set up for, and read up on the next exercise. I wait for the time to pass… and fret just a bit about how my lunch hour is running long and I need to get back to work…and by that time my pretty little pink Gym Boss rings and away I go again.

So, when I feel pressed for time, I ditch the weights and jump onto the treadmill. For that mindless, feel-good workout. Yes, I do realize the stupidity of this. I am a big believer of strength training so this bugs me, that I can’t get into a regular routine with weights. I have to come up with a different solution – a faster workout to get me into the habit of lifting weights again as I am now in the habit of running again.

I have a lot of weight training DVDs that offer 10-20 minute workouts of particular muscle groups (legs and glutes, arms & chest, etc.). But I’m not really too jazzed about bringing my DVD player to the gym – I feel that would be like bringing my own personal trainer onto the gym trainers’ turf.  It just doesn’t seem too “nice” – rather rude, in fact. Like bringing a bagged lunch to a restaurant and eating it there. So I will have to be doing this at home or in my office since I am not willing to shell out for personal training at this time.  (Not that I have any thing against personal trainers – after all, it was through my former personal trainer that JD and I became re-acquainted!)

I will switch to DVD for now, and come back to the “Bible” once I am more re-acquainted with the exercises and the strength training is firmly established in my routine. There’s nothing like an exercise video to get the job done and do the thinking for you. 😉

My first strength-training goal – to be able to do a set of  12 full, on-the-toes, manly-man-type push-ups. Not going to happen soon, but it will happen! You read it here first. 🙂

Next week: I’ll be taking my measurements again after my weigh-in. (I plan to do this every 4 weeks – another measure of progress, perhaps even a better one than the scale.)